Vandenberg IS bringing divers to the Keys!

[a.Meere.diver]

can someone with some local knowledge recommend a place to stay that isn't too expensive and what the best dive op would be to go with....pretty expensive from the great white north, but worth it if it is as good as I imagine it to be.

 

[User0559]

Blue Lagoon-$79.00 a night, Southpoint Divers, Lost Reef Adventures...

 

[Indian Valley Scuba]

There are a number of operators to choose from and we have had no problems with competitive pricing and unrestricted diving on this wreck. We've run about a dozen charters out the Vandenberg since June. Choose carefully, ask questions up front, and get confirmations ahead of time!

 

[sphillips3]

I dove the V last month. When setting up my reservation I found:

1) All the ops I talked to required a guide for divers without an advanced cert. I feel that the pricing for the guides is a bit steep ($25 per diver, on top of the trip price and they expect a tip on top of that!), but I guess they have to make a living. Note that since the wreck has only been down a few months, many of the "guides" only have 5 or 6 dives on the wreck.

2) You do need to ask specifically about how many dives you get on the wreck. A number of the trips are "one wreck, one reef".

3) And, of course, Nitrox is another extra.

When you do the dive, be prepared for a very strong current. I was told that the current is not always there, but the day we dove it was there with a vengence, and not just at the surface. Pay attention to the dive briefing if you don't have experience with diving in a strong current. The boat and crew were well prepared for the current, but some divers insisted on doing things their own way and ended up providing some entertainment for the rest of us.

 

[Buoyant1]

I dove the V last month. When setting up my reservation I found:

1) All the ops I talked to required a guide for divers without an advanced cert. I feel that the pricing for the guides is a bit steep ($25 per diver, on top of the trip price and they expect a tip on top of that!), but I guess they have to make a living. Note that since the wreck has only been down a few months, many of the "guides" only have 5 or 6 dives on the wreck.

2) You do need to ask specifically about how many dives you get on the wreck. A number of the trips are "one wreck, one reef".

3) And, of course, Nitrox is another extra.

When you do the dive, be prepared for a very strong current. I was told that the current is not always there, but the day we dove it was there with a vengence, and not just at the surface. Pay attention to the dive briefing if you don't have experience with diving in a strong current. The boat and crew were well prepared for the current, but some divers insisted on doing things their own way and ended up providing some entertainment for the rest of us.

How does the current run normally? front to back? side to side? I honestly don't think I've ever done a dive off of KW that didn't have some sort of current.

 

[sphillips3]

I was told that it normally runs bow-to-stern or stern-to-bow. We had bow-to-stern. Once we got down to the deck we were able to hide behind some structure and inside some rooms and relax a bit, but the trip up and down the mooring line required some real effort.

I expect some current on any ocean dive, but the crew on the boat and locals with several dives on the wreck told us that it was exceptioanally strong that day. As I said, the dive boat and the crew were prepared (nice "Carolina" rig), but many of the divers on the trip were obviously not experienced in those sorts of conditions. Certainly not impossible to deal with, but if you have not done it before you need to pay close attention to the dive briefing and ask questions if you are unclear on something (good advice even if you HAVE done it before).

 

[Buoyant1]

Good to know...had similar conditions on the Duane last year and the Thunderbolt the year before.

We were "flying flags" on the line both up and down!

 

[Scuba_Dad]

I dove the Vandy in early August with Lost Reef Adventures. We did a double dip for $55. We brought our own tanks. We lucked out. We had top to bottom viz and the current was very manageable.



I liked the way they set the tag line to the mooring line. The had a ball behind the boat and they attached a weight to the tag line. So, the line from the ball to the mooring line was 15' deep. We just dropped down the line to 15', pulled ourselves along the tag line to the mooring line, then down we went. It was great not having to worry about the boat bouncing off of our heads.

 

[Missdirected]

I dove this during ITK for $60.00. I provided my own tanks (nitrox) and weights. We did a double dip. No problems with price shifting. They would ONLY do two tanks on the V if everyone was advanced w/nitrox, which we were. IT WAS AN AWESOME DIVE.
Beats the heck out of the Mighty O!

So agree with SalmonBoy on this. it was a fantastic dive. The company we used was Lost Reef. Great prices. Here is a link to their site: Dive Key West - Lost Reef Adventures

 

[MentalMarine]

I dove the Vandenberg last weekend with Lost Reef Adventures, I provided my own tanks and weights and paid 55 each double dip. I ended up doing six dives on her. Four on the first day and two the next morning. The current ranged from RIPPING, to zero, yes zero. Don't forget your SMB, there were two divers that got blown off of it and were about three hundred yards out when a divemaster spotted them. They didn't have an SMB.